How did the Civil Rights Movement emerge?

Answer 1

The phrase "civil rights" is a translation of Latin ius civis (rights of citizens). Roman citizens could be either free (libertas) or servile (servitus), but they all had rights in law.[1] After the Edit of the Milan in 313, these rights included the freedom of religion.[2] Roman legal doctrine was lost during the Middle Ages, but claims of universal rights could still be made based on religious doctrine. According to the leaders of Kett's Rebellion (1549), "all bond men may be made free, for God made all free with his precious blood-shedding."[3] In the 17th century, English common law judge Sir Edward Coke revived the idea of rights based on citizenship by arguing that Englishman had historically enjoyed such rights based on Magna Carta and other sources. Although Coke's view of legal history was spurious, his commentaries were highly influential. Parliament approved Coke's Petition of Right in 1628. This document specified that Englishmen had "rights and liberties." The Massachusetts Body of Liberties, an early Bill of Rights, was adopted in 1641. The phrase "Civil liberties" was used by John Milton in Areopagatica(1644). "Civil rights" was used by Oliver Cromwell in a speech to parliament given in 1657.[4]

The English Bill of Rights was adopted in 1689. The Virginia Declaration of Rights, by George Mason and James Madison, was adopted in 1776. The Virginia declaration is the direct ancestor and model for the U.S. Bill of Rights (1789). In early 19th Britain, the phrase "civil rights" most commonly referred to the problem of legal discrimination against Catholics. In the 1860s, Americans adapted this usage to newly freed blacks. Congress enacted civil rights acts in 1866, 1871, 1875, 1957, 1960, 1964, 1968, and 1991.

Answer 2

Following the Civil War, attempts were made to protect the civil rights of the newly freed slaves. The first Civil Rights Acts were passed in 1866, 1894, 1871, and 1875. Those acts tried to protect the slaves rights and freedoms, like the right to sue, to be heard in jury trials, and the right to hold property. The Fourteenth Amendment, 1867, guaranteed all citizens of the US and all citizens in the states in which they lived, equal treatment under the law. It intended to prevent states from taking away the civil rights protected by the Constitution, from ex-slaves.

As reconstruction ended and the Blacks lost political power in the South, there was no more federal civil rights legislation until The Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960. The spark that started the modern Civil Rights Movement occurred in December of 1955. Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, as Montgomery, Alabama law required. The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. became the spokesman for the protest that developed and led the Black boycott of the Montgomery Bus system. The result was felt nation wide.